Beelzebub 1,268

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Well I never. Another unaided finish, though admittedly it took until Thursday and there was some very tentative guesswork involved.

Not all of which I’ve 1 down-ly checked in Chambers, so it’s quite possible I’ve slipped somewhere. 15 across at least needs some explanation.

*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed.

Across
3 INESCULENT – (TENNIS CLUE)*.
10 ARNUT – R in TUNA<.
11 ONE-MAN – (NAME + NO)<.
12 SYLPHY – PLY< in SHY.
13 MARINA – MAR + IN A.
15 TSAR – One article exported by silk authority.
17 VIATORIAL – (TORI + A) in VIAL.
18 DISACCORDANT – (A in DISC) + CORD + ANT.
19 ITALIAN SIXTH – I + (A LATIN)* + (X in THIS*).
23 OBFUSCATE – OB + (CAT in FUSE).
26 SNEB – BENS<. “Ben” is a Scottish word meaning an inner or otherwise better room in a house, though “better rooms” had me spend a moment or two trying to recall words for casino.
27 SKIDOO – DO in SKIO.
28 GAMINE – IN in GAME.
29 LANDAU – LAND + Au.
30 SWATS – W in SATS.
31 SHEAR-STEEL – homophone of “sheer steal”.
Down
1 FASTIDIOUS – FASTI + [o]DIOUS.
2 DRY SKI – D + (RISKY)*.
3 IN-LAWS – (LA in NW) in IS.
4 ETHNICISM – (IN CHEMIST)*.
5 STYRACACEOUS – STY + (CACAO SURE)*.
6 COME TO NAUGHT – COMET + (H[earing] in NOUGAT*). I’m not sure why comets are “hairy” stars, but I’m sure there’s an explanation.
7 LERP – [ful]LER P[rotection].
8 EMILIA – (A1 + LIME). “Lime” can indeed mean to trap. Emilia seems to be a character from Shakespeare, but I didn’t dig any further because having spent seven years at an English public school, I’m still allergic.
9 NANNA – N + ANNA.
14 ALL THE BEST – (L + THEBES) in ALT.
16 WORST CASE – (ACTS in SR)< in WOE.
20 AFFINE – (F + F) in AINÉ.
21 XENIAL – EX< + LAIN<.
22 TWENTY – WENT in (T’ + Y).
24 BEKAH – B[ought] + HAKE<.
25 EDDA – ADDE[d]<.

 

3 comments on “Beelzebub 1,268”

  1. Emilia was Iago’s wife.
    Tasar is the same as tusser, a fawn coloured silk. Take one article out and you have the answer.

    BTW I had the same educational background as you but a diametrically opposed reaction, and went on to read English at university. To what extent that contributed to the only two careers I ever had (computing and jazz) it is impossible to say!

    Thanks as always to blogger & setter.

  2. The two I couldn’t parse were 15ac and 26ac, so thanks to both of you for explaining those.

    A minor (no pun intended) quibble for me was 19ac. According to Chambers (and the New Oxford Companion to Music) the Italian sixth is a chord, not an interval, based on the interval of the augmented sixth. (I’m not a musician, so I may be misunderstanding this, but it seems fairly basic music theory.)

  3. PS As for comets being hairy stars, presumably it was because their tails made them look hirsute that the Greek word kometes, meaning long-haired was used as their name.

    If you want a higher authority, albeit from the 1st century ad, try the Roman emperor Vespasian who said, when one appeared, “Fear nothing, this bearded star concerns me not; rather should it threaten my neighbour the king of the Parthians, since he is hairy and I am bald.”

    Just off for the first Famous Grouse of the day.

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